DeSoto sharpshooter set to attend Duke

Texas may be known for football, but veteran coach Chris Dyer hopes by the time DeSoto finishes its three-game HighSchoolOT.com Holiday Invitational slate, those expectations will be a little different in Holliday Gymnasium.

“I think it is a great experience for our young men to be able to travel to a prestigious tournament,” he said of the DeSoto, Texas school. “It’s good for our program to let other people see we can do something besides play football in Texas.”

Dyer, who won the Texas 5A state championship with the Eagles in 2009 and 2003, arrives in Raleigh to compete in the school’s first Holiday Invitational with a young but talented squad that has been ranked this season in the Top 20 nationally by MaxPreps.com.

“I think when you play against tough competition, it makes you better,” he said.

One of the team’s two seniors is Duke signee Matt Jones, who is ranked the No. 36 recruit in the class of 2013. The 6-4 shooting guard has been compared to former Duke sharp shooter J.J. Reddick.

“I think sometimes we get caught up in Xs and Os and expectations, but I think the bottom line is that (Jones) is a good person, a good student and a fine young man who works extremely hard,” Dyer said, including running the point and playing on the block at times. “He’s done everything we’ve asked him to do.”